IT HARDLY SEEMS LIKE a year ago since the launch of www.cartt.ca.
It feels more like just last month I was dragging my infant daughter around to business meetings, planning the launch of this site. Accountants, lawyers, web site developers, database folks, bankers, you name it, Brenna met with them. Prior to the launch (and even for some time after it), I was her primary caregiver, so she tagged along and was a perfect little angel in boardrooms, offices and restaurants… well, mostly.
Now, she’s almost two, in a great day care, and as of Tuesday, May 2, my other baby, cartt.ca, turned one. (My original baby, my son Case, is seven and my wife – without whose support this site could not have gotten going, is 38.)
Over the past 12 months, almost 2,500 stories have appeared on cartt.ca. We’ve broken our fair share of news – and have logged thousands of miles to cover as many of the conventions and events in North America as we can (I love Wi-Fi!). We’ve run 50 TUESDAY INTERVIEWS – our weekly feature which has included a range of folks such as Rogers Communications president and chief operating officer Nadir Mohammed, TSN host Jennifer Hedger, Bell Canada regulatory head Mirko Bibic, 640 Toronto program director Gord Harris and numerous other executives and talent from many companies from within the CARTT (Cable, Radio, Television and Telecom) spectrum.
We have four editors with specific coverage areas. Laurel Hyatt is our radio editor and she has been just indispensable covering that part of the industry as well as the many, many, many things happening in Ottawa, not to mention expertly covering for me when I’ve been away.
Glenn Wanamaker is cartt.ca’s Quebec editor and recently scored a first: a sit-down interview with notorious DJ Jeff Fillion. Tara Blasco Raj is our western editor and will cover the Banff TV fest for us next month. John Bugailiskis is our consumer electronics editor and was in heaven in January filing reports from gadget-guy central – the Consumer Electronics Show. All have done great work. In addition to them, readers will recognize other regular contributors such as Myron Love in Winnipeg, Sue Tolusso – who knows the production industry inside and out, and Norma Reveler, a long-time industry journalist.
Simply, cartt.ca couldn’t survive without these talented writers. It’s not possible to cover this fast-paced, always changing, fun industry alone. But thanks to their contributions, I feel confident in saying that cartt.ca covers the industry in Canada like no other media outlet and our original content – the stuff you can only find here – is what drives the site.
I also want to extend a special thanks to cartt.ca’s charter advertisers: Capital Networks, Rogers Media, TVC Canada and Broadcast Captioning & Consulting Services. They have been behind this concept from before day one and cartt.ca could not have gotten off the ground without them. Their ongoing support is much appreciated.
Finally – and most importantly – to the readers and subscribers of cartt.ca, thanks so much for your readership. (And a special nod to those readers who are also news tipsters – we love tracking down your leads.)
Our "cover price", we think, is a great deal at $75-a-year but we don’t take that cost lightly. We know there are many places on the web to get content for free, so cartt.ca is constantly striving to bring as much original content to our subscribers as possible. We want you to continue to feel that your 75 bucks (or your company’s bulk purchase) is worth the money. (For those of you getting cartt.ca for free, er, somehow, we’d simply invite you to subscribe.)
I apologize for commandeering the weekly Commentary piece for patting ourselves on the back a little, but after more than one year of hard work I wanted to thank those who have been responsible for the success of cartt.ca and say that we look forward to continuing our coverage of this exciting industry.
To comment on this or anything else on cartt.ca, drop us a line at editorial@cartt.ca.
